Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine. Clinical laboratory and biomedical science related news, abstracts and images for medical laboratory professionals, students and other laboratory geeks.

Art and Science of Laboratory Medicine

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

The Colors of Microbiology

The color of micro-organisms (fungi, bacteria, algae, and such) is due to different colored substances in the cells. For instance, bacteria use variants of chlorophyll (the green in plants) but absorb light of different wavelengths creating natural colors of purple, pink, green, yellow, orange, and brown.

While a few of the images have been color enhanced or stained with dyes for better viewing under a microscope, and the Petri dishes contain and added vivid color of a growth medium, microbiology is a wonderful source of color inspiration.